Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1997, Page 165

Hostellers in Landnámabók
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building the hall by the road, however, is made after mention of the separation.
In the third example, the ‘story-line’ is developed, a feature still more marked in
a family saga account of the same events, even if we cannot say which of the two
in its earliest form - settlement history or family saga - should be accorded
temporal priority and ‘source’ status. In Landnámabók we find:
Geirroðr hét maðr, er fór til Islands, ok með honum Finngeirr son Þorsteins pndurs
ok Ulfarr kappi: þeir fóru af Hálogalandi til Islands. Geirroðr nam land inn frá Þórsá
til Langadalsár; hann bjó á Eyri. Geirroðr gaf land Olfari skipverja sínum tveim megin
Úlfarsfells ok fyrir innan fjall . . . Geirríðr hét systir Geirroðar, er átt hafði Bjprn, son
Bplverks blindingatrjónu; Þórólfr hét son þeira. Þau Geirríðr fóru til Islands eptir
andlát Bjarnar ok váru enn fyrsta vetr á Eyri. Um várit gaf Geirroðr systur sinni bústað
í Borgardal, en Þórólfr fór útan ok lagðisk í víking. Geirríðr sparði ekki mat við menn
ok lét gera skála sinn um þjóðbraut þvera; hon sat á stóli ok laðaði úti gesti, en borð
stóð inni jafnan ok matr á. Þórólfr kom til fslands eptir andlát Geirríðar; hann skoraði
á Úlfar til landa ok bauð honum hólmgpngu. (S86, H74)
Eyrbyggja saga gives largely the same account, changing the time of the
mother’s passing, with the important addition of the son’s attitude toward the
mother’s economic situation:
I þenna tíma kom út Geirríðr, systir Geirroðar á Eyri, ok gaf hann henni bústað í
Borgardal fyrir innan Álptafjprð. Hon lét setja skála sinn á þjóðbraut þvera, ok skyldu
allir menn ríða þar í gegnum; þar stóð jafnan borð ok matr á, gefinn hverjum er hafa
vildi; af slíku þótti hon it mesta gpfugkvendi. Geirríði hafði átta Bjgrn, sonr Bplverks
blindingatrjónu, ok hét þeira sonr Þórólfr; hann var víkingr mikill. Hann kom út
npkkuru síðar en móðir hans ok var með henni inn fyrsta vetr. Þórólfi þótti þat lítit
búland ok skoraði á Úlfar kappa til ianda ok bauð honum hólmgpngu, því at hann var
við aldr ok barnlauss. (Eyrbyggja saga 1933, Ch. 8)
Here it is clearly Geirríðr’s modest land holdings that frustrate the returned
viking Þórólfr in assuming the social and economic situation he wanted, and we
sense that her avocation as hosteller will not be continued in the next generation.
Since the Norwegian homeland’s tradition of roadside inns dates from an
appreciably later period, the question must be asked whether this institution of
hospitality toward travellers, which is otherwise unattested in Old Norse-Icelan-
dic literature, can have a possible model in cultural communities with which the
land-takers were in contact, other than those in Norway. But first the internal
evidence may be scrutinized somewhat more closely. In one instance, the ‘guest-
house’ is called eldhús (both ‘kitchen’ and ‘hall’) and size is emphasized; in the
case of the two women, the term is skáli, ‘hut, shed’ but also the better finished
and more public ‘hall’. Þorbrandr’s arrangement seems to be such that men and
asks her husband to move their residence, since she is unable to meet all the demands on her
for hospitality (Ch. 10). There may also be some implicit criticism of the couple; Helgi has a
joint chieftainship and may be living a bit beyond his means to secure it.